Black Dog
Lacus, MD, USA
April 2005
I've always been what some people call a "sensitive", but out of all my experiences with the strange and paranormal, one sticks out in my mind and still frightens me even today.
I've lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for over ten years now, and my experience in this story happened when I was in seventh grade. Our grade from our middle school took an extended field trip to a national park in Delaware, Cape Henlopen. I wasn't exactly excited over going, but thought maybe it would bring me out of my shell more because I was such a timid person. I'd never really been accepted by many of my peers, considering strange things always seemed to happen around me. I thought maybe going there with them would help.
We arrived on a bright Wednesday afternoon and everything seemed to go fine. Cape Henlopen (for those who don't know much about it) was a military base used in WWII. We stayed in the old barracks, girls in two, boys in two. The barracks were just one long room, with beds lining both sides. There was no air conditioning and the bathrooms were in a separate building a few feet away. As you can imagine, it wasn't exactly 'heavenly' for a bunch of seventh graders.
My first experience started that night, when I couldn't sleep. I sat up in my bed and looked out of one of the screened windows. To my shock and horror, I saw a black shape wandering around outside near the bathrooms. I knew instantly that it wasn't normal, and I laid back in my bed with the covers over my head the entire night. I vaguely remember hearing scratching at the door, but I was so scared I couldn't look back out from under the covers.
I didn't tell anyone about the experience, though I didn't sleep very well that night. The next day, the teachers who came took us out to the beaches and other things to see there. It was okay, but I still had the distinct feeling of being uneasy there. I eventually admitted that to one of the teachers I was close to, but she said that it might have just been because I wasn't used to being away from home. I hoped she was right.
That evening though, I saw the shape again. This time, it was moving through the nearby trees. I could see it clearly from where I was standing. It looked like a large black dog. It was very big, like my older brother's Great Dane. It stopped and looked over at me. That's when I saw it had red eyes. Needless to say, I screamed and ran back to my barrack, determined to leave. I packed my things and got a teacher to walk me to the pay phones to call my parents. The entire time I talked to my mother, I felt those red eyes watching me. I don't know why, but I just knew if I stayed there I would have something terrible happen. Eventually, my parents agreed to come get me.
I spent the next few hours absolutely terrified. My parents did get there after night had set in, and even walking to the car, I stayed very close to my dad. I never told them about the dog, because I felt like they wouldn't believe me anyways. But as we drove off, I saw those same red eyes, watching from the gates by our camp.
This is actually the first time I've told anyone this story. Even today, many years later, it still frightens me. Why was it only I who saw it? I still don't really know. I just know that I didn't imagine it. And I never want to have something like that incident happen to me again.
If anyone's had any similar experiences, I'd love to hear from you. At least, so I'd know I wasn't the only one.